trails

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of trail.

   The park's network of trails winds through dense forest.

   Wildfire smoke forced rangers to close several trails for the weekend.

   Note

   One spelling, several kinds of path. Hikers' trails are routes over land, while a jet's or an animal's trails are the marks left behind. A mathematician's trails are walks that never reuse an edge, and television trails are previews of a coming film. The same letters also spell the present-tense verb, so the grammar tells them apart: after an article or a number (the trails, three trails), it is this noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of trail.

   The vine trails over the garden wall and down toward the path.

   Smoke trails from the old chimney on cold mornings.

   Note

   A verb that works both with and without an object, matched to a single subject (she trails, they trail). With an object, it means following, dragging or previewing: a detective trails a suspect, a dog trails its leash, a network trails its new series. Without one, things hang, sweep or creep on their own: a long gown trails, ivy trails along a fence. That second use usually takes a word of place such as behind, over or along.

   The detective trails the suspect through the crowded market.

   Her long scarf trails behind her in the wind.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2